396 THE LOU-LAN SITE [Chap. XI
the corner, being dovetailed. In front of the south-east beam there lay, stretched out on the eroded
slope, a portion of the timber frame of the wall which it had once borne, just as it probably may have
been thrown down by the wind after centuries of exposure. The photograph, Fig. 104, shows it in the
foreground. The beam which had carried the roofing, i/f feet long, was still intact, with the
dowels into which posts had fitted. The two posts at the eastern end of the beam were still fitted
into their dowels and held together In their original position by horizontal joining pieces (see
Fig. 104 and elevation of frame drawn to scale in Plate 27). Two dowels, on either side of the
centre of thereof beam and 5' 8" apart, indicated the position of two jambs once flanking an entrance,
and as the fine and well-preserved beam, L.B. n. 0037 (Plate XXXI), with mitred ends and floral
scroll carving on its face, has a length exactly fitting this width of entrance, it is highly probable
that it once served as the lintel over this very doorway.
Relics of I was unable to trace any indication of the architectural features of the interior of the shrine,
sculptures, a circunistance which the disturbed condition of the remains suffices to explain.4 It may, however,
be surmised that the elaborate lathe-turned balusters, L.B. n. ooro, 0038-45 (Plate XXXIII), and
the rails which they formerly supported, L.B, n. 0046-51 (Plate XXXIII), had once served to enclose
some portion of the space within the shrine, and probably that containing objects of worship. That
there must have been images in the shrine may be considered as certain,,however scanty the relics
which prove it. They consist of the arm of a wooden figure, carved in the round or high relievo,
L.B. ii. 0052 (Plate XXXIV), and two small pieces of stucco relievo, of which one, L.B. n. 6, probably
formed part of the head-dress of a large stucco image, while the other, L.B. IL 7, is likely
to have belonged to the flame border of a large halo or vesica in relievo as found so often behind
Buddhist images of Tcang times, from Khotan to Tun-huang. The surface of the wooden arm has
suffered so much from exposure that it cannot be determined whether it was originally painted or
coated with stucco. But if a conjecture may be hazarded, the clenched hand seems curiously
suggestive of a pose common in those figures of Lokapalas, or ' Guardian Kings of the regions \
which in the stucco image groups of the * Thousand Buddhas' of Tun-huang are so frequently
associated with a Buddha or Bodhisattva.5
If there were any need of demonstrating the fact that the ruin L.B. n is that of a Buddhist
shrine, it would suffice to refer in proof of it to the two finials In wood, L.B. n. 0033-34
(Plate XXXIl), representing Stupas. About twenty and thirty inches in height respectively, they
accurately reproduce the characteristic structural features of Stiipas, and may appositely be
compared with the small Stupa model, N, v. xvL ooi -(see above, pp. 246 sq.)s found at the Niya
Site* They show a square base at the bottom and above it a circular drum, surmounted by a dome
which carries a square member spreading out at the top, such as is regularly seen in well-preserved
Gandhara Stfipas and also in the small stone-carved model, Yo. 00121 (Plate VI). The whole is
crowned by a series of * umbrellas* like those which Indian Stiipas invariably once carried, whether in
wood or stone. The mortice found In the base for attachment suggests that these little Stupa
representations served an architectural purpose as finials. But their exact position cannot be
proveds and there is the neatly-carved little finial, L*B. IL 009 (Plate XXXV), still retaining traces of
* It is probable that if a careful examination of aH the presence of four massive foundation beams (&££. p. 64$).
remains could have been made, and their positions marked Pi, 76 illustrates the men's m&dus op€randi In searching
measurements taken by some one with archaeological 'the remains. [For the use of Dr. Hedin's sketch-plan of
fawwftedge they were disturbed by the operations of 'The north-westernmost vilkge of Lo&-laa% ibid. PL 75,
Dr. HedinV men, other architectural detaik comld have been it should be noted that by some inadvertence the north-sooth
determined. His account of the ruin, Central Asm, it bearings in it have been reversed.]
pfk €54 sqq>, as j^garfs ihe ground-plan mentions only the f See below, Figs. 207, 227, 228.